Is there anything more South African than a braai? Unlikely. We have an age old tradition of grilling a fish on braai (barbeque) and the most famous would be a Snoek Braai.

 

What is Snoek?
It is one of the Cape’s most popular exports and these fish have been known to grow up to 2m in length. Snoek form schools near the bottom of the ocean and prefer water temperature between 13° and 18°C. Although it's a treat to buy this fish fresh it is available all year round as it freezes well. It can be baked, poached, fried or smoked, but the traditional way to serve it is grilled over the coals.

BEST PRACTICES FOR A SNOEK BRAAI
•    Gently shake whichever side of the grid is on top at any stage of the braai to loosen it from the meat as they do tend to stick to the grid.
•    Serve the snoek skin side down, flesh side up.
•    Break rather than cut through the snoek. Normal uncut snoek fish bones are quite large and you will easily spot them.

INGREDIENTS
1 fresh snoek
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
150ml apricot jam
100ml butter or olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
4 chopped garlic cloves
25ml soy sauce (optional)
50–100 ml white wine (optional)
Dash of chili sauce (optional)

METHOD
1. Buy your snoek cleaned with the head and tail cut off.
2. Wash the snoek under cold running water
3. Now you need to dry the fish. This can be done in one of three ways:
•    Hanging it in a cool area with a draft blowing over it.
•    Salting the snoek with coarse sea salt will absorb all the water.
•    Blotting it with paper towels.
4. Using a small pot on the fire, lightly fry chopped garlic in butter. Then add the apricot jam and lemon juice. Heat and stir until everything is melted and mixed.
5. If you salted the snoek you now have to shake off all the course sea salt. This 'pre-salting' of snoek with coarse sea salt is loved by some and hated by others. You need to test whether it 

     works for you.
6. A snoek should be braaied 'open'. Smear the skin side of the snoek with oil so that it does not stick to the grid and now place in the grid, skin side down. There are two ways:
•    Straight onto the grid. Coals will need to be slightly gentler as the skin may burn easier. More heat goes straight into the fish as it will not be deflected by the foil. You definitely need to pay

      more attention and make sure you don’t burn the fish. The skin side of the fish will end up slightly crisper.
•    Foil on grid and fish on foil. Coals can be hotter as the foil protects the fish from getting burned. Another advantage of doing it on foil is that you can fold up the sides of the foil, which saves

      any basting and sauce that runs off the fish. The fish will then partly 'boil' in the sauce (a good thing). Fish braaied on foil is also easier to lift completely onto a serving tray still on the foil.
7. Grind salt and pepper onto the flesh side of the snoek and lightly pat it onto the meat.
8. Whether you are using foil or  the skin side went straight onto the grid, a snoek should be braaied for about 15 minutes in total. The skin side of the snoek will be down for about

     80% of the total braai time. You can test whether the snoek is ready by inserting a fork in the thickest part and slightly turning the fork. If the flesh flakes, the snoek is ready.
•    When braaiing with foil I would braai 10 minutes skin side down, three minutes flesh side down and then a final two minutes skin side down to brown the skin.
•    When braaiing without foil I would go 12 minutes on skin side and then turn and give three minutes on flesh side to brown it. Best is to baste it after each turn, so make sure you have

      enough basting sauce by adding the white wine, or simply increasing all the ingredients of the basting sauce.
9. Basting the snoek: The basting should happen during the time that the flesh side is up. Use a brush or simply drip it onto the fish with a spoon. You can baste as often as you wish until all

    the basting is used up.

Now its time to open a good bottle of white wine and enjoy your grilled snoek with friends.